CHINA. Italian gourmet chocolate house Venchi has opened a store at Shanghai Hongqiao International Airport – its first airport store outside Italy.
Venchi, a renowned Italian brand with a heritage dating back over more than 140 years, enjoys a strong local market presence in China.
The Shanghai Hongqiao store, opened last month, is the brand’s 25th in Mainland China. The 82.5sq m shop caters to domestic and international travellers seeking premium Italian confectionery.
It features a signature pick-and-mix chocolate wall and tempting selection of over 50 varieties of chocolates. The offer includes 30 unique chocolate assortment gift boxes, and a Hongqiao International Airport exclusive ‘Travel Collection’ design box.
A comfortable lounge area allows shoppers to enjoy Venchi’s 16 most-renowned Gelato flavours. These are made with fine natural ingredients, including Piedmont Hazelnuts, Bronte Pistachios, Ligurian olive oil, Sorrento lemon, Madagascar vanilla, and premium cocoa beans from top cocoa-producing areas in South America and Africa. No artificial colours and flavours are added.
This venture is the latest instalment in Venchi’s rapid APAC expansion, which has seen the opening of 12 stores in Mainland China, Taipei, Japan and Indonesia in 2020 alone. Venchi has introduced 13 stores in Hong Kong within the last ten years, 70% of them in the last four years, and has plans to open more.
Venchi said that its investment in Hong Kong and the wider APAC region stems from the realisation that the current market situation is more stable and retail rental rates have become much more favourable.
The company has adapted to evolving customer needs during the pandemic, for example by offering more take-away options so that shoppers need not remove facemasks in store, and adding a delivery platform.
Venchi APAC Managing Director Marco Galimberti said that Asia is the future of the company and now is the perfect time to invest. “Never let a good crisis go to waste is our motto,” he said.
“We didn’t allow for Covid to affect our plans as we know sooner or later the situation will resolve. Instead, we powered on and adapted to the climate we now find ourselves in. By the end of 2021 we will be proud to announce APAC will be Venchi’s largest market outside of Italy, with the highest number of stores.”
Venchi prepared for rapid Asia expansion through increasing factory capacity by +50% in 2018. The company plans to open a further 29 stores in the Asia Pacific region in 2021. Following Shanghai Hongqiao, the next location will be in Shanghai’s Taikoo Li Qiantan retail, food & beverage and leisure facility, a joint venture between Swire Properties and the Lujiazui Group.
Venchi will then open further stores in Osaka, Nanjing and Malaysia, and will continue to expand in Taipei and Jakarta.
